In a statement, Lieberman announced his bill drew the support of Democratic Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Tom Udall (N.M.), Bob Casey (Pa.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats, also signed on as a co-sponsor to the legislation.

“I am honored that nine more of my colleagues have decided to co-sponsor this bill, which will end discrimination against American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines on the basis of their sexual orientation,” Lieberman said in the release, adding that the bill would help “increase military readiness and maintain the high standards of conduct we expect of our service members.”

The 90-minute session, which included seven Senate Democrats, six Senate Republicans and one independent, represents a major effort by Obama and his senior advisers to forge a bipartisan agreement on how to combat climate change.


Brown, D-Ohio, said a consensus emerged among the 14 senators that "we want to find a way to do this, a consensus that we need to deal with our dependence on foreign oil, and a consensus that this needs to be a jobs bill."

"When the president of the United States convenes people, there is momentum created," Brown said. "This created momentum and brought some Republicans and Democrats together. But it’s just a step."

The Ohio Department of Transportation has said it already studied whether to add a lane for bicyclists and pedestrians and had decided against it for various reasons -- cost, maintenance and user safety, among them.

"But at the direction of the governor, we will take a renewed look," said Scott Varner, ODOT spokesman.

What would potentially be the narrowest lane across the $450 million bridge has drawn the biggest debate for politicians.

ODOT has said $85 million in federal stimulus money has already been allocated for the program, based on an environmental impact statement that did not include a bike lane.

To go back now and ask the Federal Highway Administration to revise the statement could put Ohio's federal funding in jeopardy, ODOT has contended.

That did not sit well with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who last month wrote the highway administration asking it to allow ODOT to resubmit the impact statement without threat of losing funding. ODOT, meanwhile, did not relent.

Then last Thursday, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown took a different approach, writing to Strickland and urging the governor to get involved and ensure ODOT includes a multipurpose route across the bridge.

"It would be penny-wise and pound-foolish to build this bridge with only cars and trucks in mind," Brown wrote to Strickland.

"It is imperative that when construction begins on the new Inner Belt, a bike and pedestrian path is included," Brown said.

A study by the Brookings Institution released today, March 9, found that nearly half a trillion dollars — $446.7 billion — in federal domestic assistance money is tied to census data.

Most Dayton-area residents should receive their 10-question census form in the mail soon. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, citing the Brookings Institution figure, stressed Monday how important it is for every household to complete the form and return it.

A 2 percent undercount in Montgomery County could mean the loss of $134 million in federal funding during the next decade, according to the Brookings study. The same undercount could mean losses in other counties: $35 million in Greene, $23 million in Miami, $10 million in Preble, $12 million in Darke and $38 million in Warren.

“The census determines the future of our state,” Brown said at a Cleveland rally Monday. “It determines the resources, services and funding we’ll have available to ensure our children grow up with the education and medical care they need. It determines the funding we’ll have to keep our communities safe and ensure our small businesses can grow.”

That’s essentially the message delivered in Cleveland Monday by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Brown joined the "Help the Home Team, Be Counted".

Sponsored by the Cleveland Foodbank, Greater Cleveland United Way and Neighborhood Connections, the rally was to raise awareness about the importance of being counted in the 2010 U.S. Census.

More than $400 billion each year is allocated to states based on census data. Brown says that for every person missed in the count, Ohio loses $12,000 over ten years. If 2% of Cuyahoga County goes uncounted, that means $300,000 lost over ten years.

In pointed language, the authors urged Brown to back a bill that would prevent the U.S. Environmental Agency from regulating the greenhouse gasses thought to cause climate change, warning in near-apocalyptic terms that "the future of Ohio may depend on this vote."

The letter was signed by 25 executives, right down to the head of J's Pizza Market in Mentor. And it vividly illustrates the pressure that Ohio lawmakers, whose state gets about 86 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power plants, face from industries to oppose new restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide - either from Congress approving new laws or the EPA issuing regulations.

Although environmentalists are wary of Brown's support of technology designed to allow utility companies to burn Ohio coal without emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, they largely back the senator, who likes to boast that "Ohio really is on the road to being the Silicon Valley of alternative energy."

Intelliwave learned this week it will received $1.116 million in stimulus grant funds and $1.162 million in stimulus loan funds that will be used during the next three years to bring broadband service to about 11,232 households and businesses in the three-county area.

"This award represents true economic stimulus for the region," said Chris Cooper, managing partner of Intelliwave. "Not only will Intelliwave offer high-quality technical job opportunities to residents here, we will also expand economic opportunities within the communities that will now have access to lower-cost, higher-speed Internet service."

About 2,200 applications were submitted nationally for a piece of the $7.2 billion stimulus pie being set aside for expanding broadband access.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, agreed that expanding broadband is critical to future economic development in Ohio.

Brown, a Democrat, visited Columbus Friday to announce Ohio’s need for additional funds.

Characterizing the Buckeye state as being on the frontline of the housing crisis, Brown noted Ohio ranks sixth in the nation for the total number of homeowners who owe more on their properties than they’re worth, based on a report from the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, a nonprofit housing assistance agency.

Yet, Brown said, Ohio was not included among award winners in the Help for the Hardest-Hit Housing Markets program announced by President Barack Obama last month. Also known as 4HP, the program will spread $1.5 billion in leftover bank bailout funds to states with declining housing stock. Nevada, Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan were chosen to receive the money.

“Too many Ohioans are trying to modify their mortgages so they can hold onto their homes, but getting nothing but the run-around from their lenders,” Brown said. “Too many communities are seeing vacant and abandoned properties that lower surrounding property values and compromise economic development.”

Elizabeth is one of two fire departments in southeast Ohio to get such a grant.

Fire Chief Dale Waugh said the money will be used for roughly a dozen new firefighter air packs, a compressor system to fill the air packs, a thermal imaging camera, spare air bottles and other miscellaneous items.

“This is great because it’s something we haven’t been able to do (on our own). We bought a few air packs but some are from back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. A lot of them still have the old steel bottles,” Waugh said. “The new ones will be fiberglass and should weigh about a third, maybe a fourth of what the steel bottles weigh.” And we should get 40 minutes of air time instead of 20 minutes.”

The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System "has concerns about future involvement" with the business if the plant closes, OPERS wrote in a letter to Permira Advisors, the private equity firm that owns Hugo Boss.

The decision to close the plant will cost hundreds of jobs and "implicates" OPERS because the system invested in Permira Advisors, OPERS Chairman Ken Thomas and Chief Executive Officer Chris DeRose wrote Feb. 25.

"The board finds it unfortunate to have to address a question of Ohio job loss as an investor in the fund," according to the letter, sent at the urging of union workers.

While no breakthroughs were made Thursday and legislative details remained elusive, hope remained alive that senators could deliver President Barack Obama a sweeping financial reform package within weeks.

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd huddled with most of the Democrats on his committee late Thursday, briefing them on his on-going negotiations with Republicans over the legislation's most divisive element: consumer protection. Dodd and his chief negotiating Republican partner, Bob Corker of Tennessee, have been working on a conceptual plan to build a new consumer protection division at the Federal Reserve – an idea that remained on the table despite harsh criticism from the members on the left, who blame the Fed for setting the stage for the economic meltdown.

Dodd’s Democratic colleagues emerged from the hour-plus meeting in his Russell offices sounding optimistic notes.

Democrats still have “a few differences but I think it’s coming together,” said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), stressing – as every senator did – that nothing has been agreed to yet.

“I think we’re going generally in the right direction,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), one of several key Democrats who had greeted the Fed-based consumer body with skepticism. “We’re working for the best consumer protection [entity] possible,” he said.

Brown reiterated his preference for a stand-alone Consumer Financial Protection Agency – the administration’s preferred proposal – but acknowledged that it might not be possible to pass a bill with a separate new agency.

US Senator Sherrod Brown Thursday announced Benton Ridge Telephone Company will use the money to extend fiber-optic connections to the village.

...

Brown estimates the state could generate over 5-billion dollars in economic activity, and create or protect 96-thousand jobs statewide.

Miamisburg received $31,217 of the $397,594 awarded by FEMA.

“Our first responders put their lives on the line every day across Ohio,” Brown said. “These funds ensure that firefighters in southwest Ohio have the resources they need to perform their jobs safely.”

The state was excluded from the Obama Administration’s $1.5 billion foreclosure relief plan. The president announced recently that Troubled Asset Relief Program money would be used to help five states hit hardest by foreclosures: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

Those states saw delinquency rates reach higher than 12.5 percent. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported Ohio’s fourth quarter delinquency rate in 2009 was 11.5 percent.

Brown pointed to Ohio’s record number of foreclosure filings in 2009 and the statistics showing foreclosures have increased steadily for 14 years.

“But if Ohio doesn’t meet the criteria in the president’s plan, the criteria are wrong,” Brown said last week. “Decline in home prices should not be a deciding factor, as that seems to tilt relief to the states with the most speculation. I’m far more concerned about middle class homeowners than people who gambled on unsustainable growth in real estate prices.”

"It is no secret that roughly two-thirds of jobs in this country are created by small businesses, and it is clear that we must once again rely on the engine of small business growth to move us down the path to full recovery," Senator Brown said in his statement today. "Unfortunately, banks have drastically reduced lending, and small businesses do not have access to the credit they need to expand and hire new workers."

Testifying at today's hearing were U.S. Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI); Mr. Rick Gillet, President, Sutton Bank (Attica, OH) on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers Association; Mr. Arthur Johnson, on behalf of the American Bankers Association; and Mr. Raj Date, Chairman and Executive Director, Cambridge Winter Financial.

The senators said that more than three-fourths of $2 billion spent on wind-energy projects supported by the stimulus package had gone to foreign companies. They said that effectively undercut the purpose of the stimulus program — formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — which is to jump-start the American economy and create jobs here.

“A critical Recovery Act priority is investment in the domestic renewable and clean energy industry, not investment in foreign manufacturers,” the senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Tuesday. They asked Mr. Geithner to apply a buy-American provision to future energy projects funded under the act.

The letter was signed by Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jon Tester of Montana.

The senators introduced legislation on Wednesday that would require that stimulus funds go only to clean-energy projects that rely on materials manufactured in the United States and create a majority of jobs here. The current law requires a “Buy American” provision only for government projects, not private enterprises.

Ohio is home to one of the most densely-populated parts of the country without passenger rail. If we’re going to attract new businesses and retain young people in our state, we need a strong transportation system. Countless surveys show that young people overwhelmingly support rail, which alleviates congestion, encourages economic development, and gives Ohioans another transportation choice if gas prices rise again.

Brown, a liberal Democrat, told reporters that he hopes that Democratic leaders include a public plan in the current package but said that he would "absolutely" try to cobble together a different proposal if it is not.

"If we don't get it on this. I still hope we get it on this. If we don't get it on this, we can give it a try," he said. Asked if that meant passing separate legislation, he answered "Absolutely, absolutely, oh yeah."

The state was excluded from the Obama administration's $1.5 billion foreclosure relief plan. The president announced that Troubled Asset Relief Program money would be used to help five states hit the hardest by foreclosures: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

Those states saw delinquency rates reach higher than 12.5 percent. According to a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Ohio's fourth quarter delinquency rate from 2009 was 11.5 percent.

To support his point, Brown pointed to Ohio's record number of foreclosure filings in 2009 and the statistics showing foreclosures have increased steadily for 14 consecutive years.

"But if Ohio doesn't meet the criteria in the president's plan, the criteria are wrong," Brown said in a statement Tuesday. "Decline in home prices should not be a deciding factor, as that seems to tilt relief to the states with the most speculation. I'm far more concerned about middle-class homeowners than people who gambled on unsustainable growth in real estate prices."

Every year costs go up, leaving school districts battling budgets and turning to the voters for help. Toledo Public Schools are facing a $30 million deficit. Fewer dollars available means fewer resources.

"We've got to do better with providing kids with the opportunity to go to college," said Senator Brown. Brown talked with teachers from all across Ohio about ways to prepare students for college and close the learning gaps in urban and remote rural areas.